A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension—Strategies And Activities for Classroom Teachers

Integration occurs when separate parts or elements are combined into a unified whole. "A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension" focuses on classroom arts integration- equally incorporating skills in drama and reading comprehension into all lessons. Drama and reading comprehension share a multitude of authentic connections, including meaning making and interpretation. Each subject complements the other, leading, ideally, to increased abilities in both. "A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension" explains the what, how, and why of effective classroom drama as well as how drama increases students' reading comprehension skills.

Lenore Blank Kelner and Rosalind Flynn make what is implicit to experienced educational drama specialists explicit for classroom teachers. "A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension" is designed for teachers with little to no experience in drama. It contains information, advice, directions, steps, tips, charts, lists, photos, and ideas for use with students in grades one through eight. Readers will find in-depth explanations of the layers of effective educational drama experiences based on classroom texts. Kelner and Flynn devote individual chapters to each of four drama strategies-story dramatization, character interviews, tableau, and human slide shows-with a step-by-step process for integration of the drama strategy and reading comprehension.

In addition, "A Dramatic Approach to Reading Comprehension" includes a comprehensive treatment of assessment in both drama and reading comprehension. Readers will find a variety of assessment guidelines, tasks, tools, and definitions of terms.

Lenore Blank Kelner is an actress, director, playwright, educator, drama specialist, and author. For the past twenty-five years she has worked with teachers and students nationwide integrating drama into ongoing classroom instruction. She is the author of The Creative Classroom (Heinemann, 1993) and was the recipient of the 2004 Creative Drama Award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.Rosalind M. Flynn is an educational drama consultant who conducts workshops for teachers, artists, and students nationwide. She is also an instructor in the Drama department at The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. Dr. Flynn's Ph.D. research focuses on the use of drama as a learning method, and her articles on educational drama have been published in many journals.